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French duo Ligovskoi are to release Esam, their second artist album and first on Field Records. It features eight expertly crafted tracks that take the listener on a spacey and hypnotic journey towards inner bliss. Formed by Nikolai Azonov and Valerio Selig in 2010, Ligovskoi once again draw on a sound palette that includes samples, synths, vocals, feedback, guitar and field recordings that merge in a painterly and romantic form of music. It recalls vast landscapes, abstract patterns and poetic movement. The title 'Esam' refers to a small, isolated mountain located on the moon, and the album is a journey to a similarly otherworldly landscape absent of human life. It features free improvisations, repetitive patterns and experimental materials that convey a wide range of emotions and styles from weightless shiny atmospheres to dark, heavy and swarming textures, leading the listener to deep contemplation. 'We spend a lot of time exchanging thoughts and feelings about the experiences we had while creating and listening, like old friends looking at clouds and discussing the shapes they see. By publishing our music, we hope that listeners will recognise their own feelings and that they will understand or feel something in common with us.' From sombre musical landscapes made from lingering drones to more uplifting, light emitting tracks, this is a slow burning but high impact album. Tracks like 'Behaim' suspend you in comforting sound, the title track prompts inward reflection and the likes of 'Cortage' is the sound of being listen to the heavens. Esam is a transportive, thoughtful album that takes you deep into a unique musical world.

The demons of night are out again: Seoul's one-stop shop creative collective Byul.org returns this fall with its third international album, entitled Nobody's Gold, out via Alien Transistor (worldwide) and the group's own Club Bidanbaem imprint (South Korea). Comprising 14 new songs, it's a dizzying, haunting affair that channels the group's manifold influences and references points (from post-punk to Stockhausen and back via club culture) and yet sounds intriguingly coherent.

Moving in and out of the shadows, Nobody's Gold breaks forth as pure sonic landscape - a universe of its own, folding and unfolding into both more experimental patterns, yet also with occasional hooks and dark catchy structures, gracious build-ups flickering among the hazy roar and thunder. After the screak and squeal of 'Lamb with a Wolf Mask,' the foreboding sounds of 'The Museum of The Two of Us' segue into a synthesized party tune about a missing friend being chased by police ('Nari Yuko Yin'), one of several vocal tracks with a sinister edge. Taking things up another notch, 'Friendly Enemies' is probably the closest this group will ever get to creating a stadium-ready anthem. On the other end of the spectrum, 'The Place Where Designers Go To Die' is a magnificent void with an immense and irresistible undertow...

Never too jolly (not even while 'Day Drinking at a Seaside Town' or during takeoff via epic pop tune 'Bats We Are'), Nobody's Gold compiles soundscapes with a very tangible, corporeal presence - iridescent sonic sculptures placed in unlikely settings (e.g. outer space, see: 'Dirty Dirtiness'), born at the fringes where night blends into day and vice versa.

Inspired by everyday life, half-remembered drug/club experiences, Pascal Quignard's disturbing La haine de la musique, Stockhausen and Bill Evans, the new LP sees the collective remain true to its DIY foundations while repeatedly questioning our listening habits and 'the exaggerated love for the concept of love,' as they put it.

Founded around the dawn of the millennium as a group of poetry-loving friends who'd occasionally meet for drinks, Byul.org has long become an extremely prolific and versatile collective within Seoul's scene: Main song-writer TaeSang Cho and his mates Yu Hur, Jowall, YunYi Yi, SuhnJoo YI, HyunJung Suh, and SoYoon Hwang went from publishing to recording, from releasing tunes to design, art direction and more. Although their list of clients includes Atelier Herme`s and the Venice Biennale (they did the Korean Pavilion twice), the group still remains a drinking circle of close friends at its core: Pals who simply like to create and carouse and dream and live and perform and play tunes together.

Switched-on Eugene Documents The Eugene Electronic Music Collective And Some Of The Many Synthed-out Figures In And Around Oregon's Iconic Hippie Stronghold During The 1980s. Whether Connected By Membership, Geography, Or The Tape Trading Scene, The Artists In And Around The Eemc Shared Compelling Visions Of The Future We Now Inhabit, Vividly Captured On Home-recorded Tapes And Distributed Via Zines, Classifieds, And Local Radio. Switched-on Eugene Is A Deep Dive Into A Heretofore Forgotten Sonic Microcosm Unlike Any Other.

Voiski embarks on the third expedition into the cosmic lands .A collection of singular and utopian ambient, electronica and techno tracks illustrated by spectacular picture of Layla Kerley and Bruno Compagnet.

Cosmic Adventure is an honest portrayal without fabrication or pretense. Too often electronic music is subjected to the damaging opinions of others and categorized in a movement or a trend, choking the freshness out of the sound. Cosmic Adventure provides a platform of creative energy, a unique platform for unique artists who search nothing except discovering new landscapes and inspiration.

Pyramids. Jagged Teeth Pushing Through Immaculate Skies. The Ever-changing Light. The Expansive Sense Of Freedom. The Wide Open Spaces. The Textured Landscape Seen From Above. Mountains. Watchful And Immobile For Thousands Of Years, Weathering Seasons, Transcending Change.
It's December 2016. I've Left The London Madness To Hit The Reset Button And Compose New Music In A Tiny Village In The Swiss Alps. I'm Over 10,000 Feet High, It's Minus 15 Degrees And The Snow Is Scintillating Under A Rich Blue Sky. I Turn Around And Suddenly This Gigantic Pyramid-shaped Peak Is Towering Over Me, Staring Me In The Face. Mind Blown. Senses Overwhelmed. Perspective. Lightbulb Moment. I Have My Album Concept.
I Wanted To Put Into Sound My Cathartic Experiences Of The Mountains. Every Track Title Was Chosen Before Composing. The Title Would Be A Catalyst For Visual Memories, Narrative And Overall Vibes. I Continued Developing The Tracks On Occasional Trips To Switzerland, But Mainly Back In The Gritty Habitat Of London's Hackney Wick. The Urban-nature Contrast Had An Impact On The Music Too.
I Use A Lot Of Found Sound, Stuff I Have Collected Over The Years, And A Lot Of Resampled Guitar Sounds And Textures. I Love Imperfections In Sound. Detuned Synths. Distortions And Glitches. Rhythmic Flutters And Percussive Frenzy. 'manual' Cut-ups. I Love Moving To House And Disco And Getting Lost In The More Melodic Side Of Techno. I Love Polyrhythms And Melodic Counterpoints. I Love The Energy And Rawness Of A Live Rock Band. I Channel All This To Create My Own Sonic Palette.

Artwork By Jimmy Turrell, Graphic Artist And Video Director Who Combines A Love Of Handmade Collage, Drawing, Screen Printing And Painting Alongside Digital Techniques. He Has Worked For Universal Music, Nike, Lexus, Levis, Mtv, The New Yorker, Intro, Capitol Records, The New York Times, Green Peace, Beck, The Prodigy/xl Recordings, Channel 4, The Guardian, Gq, The Times, La Times, Newsweek, Getty Images, Adidas, Sony Music, New York Magazine, Wired, Glastonbury Festival, And Vanity Fair Amongst Others.

The Debut Album 'pyramids' Comes Out Worldwide On Limited Double, Green Vinyl (including Download Code).

If you check the credits of The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup LP from 1973 you'll find a certain "Pascal" listed on the percussion section. That is none other than Los Angeles based artist Nicolas Pascal Raicevik (1933-1994), aka 107-34-8933, aka Head, aka Nik Pascal, aka Nik Raicevic. Besides his hitting the bongoes on the Stones album, Nik was a great artist on his own, both as a painter and as a musician. As a musician, he was a pioneer in the use of synthesizers, preceeding the Berlin school by some years when his Head LP was released on on Buddah in 1970. Buddah probably saw in Head the opportunity to cash in some money from the remains of the psychedelic scene - the three tracks on the LP are named after drugs used in the late sixties. The sounds, however, are accomplished works that show Raicevic as one of the most interesting pioneers in the use of synths. The album probably didn't do too well, since Buddah didn't renew the contract with Raicevic, who instead took his own way releasing his works on his very own Narco Records and Tapes label. Between 1968 and 1975 Narco would issue 4 LPs credited either to Nik Raicevic (Beyond The End... Eternity) or Nik Pascal (The Sixth Ear, Magnetic Web and Zero Gravity) plus one credited to 107-34-8933 (Numbers, which is in fact the same LP as Buddah's Head, albeit with different cover art). Copies of these LPs came with an ironic sticker over the shrinkwrap that read "Do not listen to this LP if you are stoned".

1972 saw the release of The Sixth Ear (Narco NR666), this time credited to Nik Pascal. A more complex work than Beyond The End..., it adds consistent rhythmic patterns to the mix with the addition of bongoes and also explores some interesting chord progressions.

Besides his musical explorations, Nik was also an interesting painter. His paintings are auctioned from time to time, and are consciousness expanding works influenced by abstract cubism and surrealism, some kind of Salvador Dalí on drugs exploring the outter and inner space. All the artwork on the sleeves of his LPs is done by himself. Spacey landscapes and psychedelic colours that fit perfectly to the music they contain.

"Nik Raicevic's music is at the intersection of radical psycho-electronic weirdness and kraut kosmische music (in particular the scifi-hypno-minimal modules of Conrad Schnitzler in Grun, Rot and Blau). It presents mega epic & tripped out electronic improvisations.

"This is an absolute must for collectors and fans of visceral, neurotic soundscapes." (progarchives)

"As far as late-60s / early-70s American Bedroom' Electronic Music goes, these LPS have to be among the first transmissions from this sector, made all the more attractive when coupled with Raicevic's alien topographIes - the covers are high-color portrayals of Venusian lanes, knotted growths, & future-past architecture in a style you might equate with Vintage' sci-fi pulp-novel covers - & copious Downer' sentiment. This music is imbued with a sort of lonely, anti-social sensibility that's about as far as you can get from the Academic' Early Electronic vector. I will say that if the Steve Birchall, Cellutron & the Invisible, and/or Pythagoron™ seed your garden, this will likely do the same." (twoheadeddog)

Never reissued before on vinyl format, the Wah Wah reissue features original sleeve artwork made of paintings and drawings by Nik himself and reproduction of the famous ironic "Do not listen if you are stoned" sticker. Limited edition, 500 copies only.

If you check the credits of The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup LP from 1973 you'll find a certain "Pascal" listed on the percussion section. That is none other than Los Angeles based artist Nicolas Pascal Raicevik (1933-1994), aka 107-34-8933, aka Head, aka Nik Pascal, aka Nik Raicevic. Besides his hitting the bongoes on the Stones album, Nik was a great artist on his own, both as a painter and as a musician. As a musician, he was a pioneer in the use of synthesizers, preceeding the Berlin school by some years when his Head LP was released on on Buddah in 1970. Buddah probably saw in Head the opportunity to cash in some money from the remains of the psychedelic scene - the three tracks on the LP are named after drugs used in the late sixties. The sounds, however, are accomplished works that show Raicevic as one of the most interesting pioneers in the use of synths. The album probably didn't do too well, since Buddah didn't renew the contract with Raicevic, who instead took his own way releasing his works on his very own Narco Records and Tapes label. Between 1968 and 1975 Narco would issue 4 LPs credited either to Nik Raicevic (Beyond The End... Eternity) or Nik Pascal (The Sixth Ear, Magnetic Web and Zero Gravity) plus one credited to 107-34-8933 (Numbers, which is in fact the same LP as Buddah's Head, albeit with different cover art). Copies of these LPs came with an ironic sticker over the shrinkwrap that read "Do not listen to this LP if you are stoned".

Magnetic Web was released in 1973. It appeared under the Nik Pascal monicker and showed a clear evolution in sound, favoured by the addition of an Arp 2600 and some rhythm boxes. It also included percussions and cymbals. The Two Headed Dog site thinks "this is his masterpiece in all of its acid-laced glory."

Besides his musical explorations, Nik was also an interesting painter. His paintings are auctioned from time to time, and are consciousness expanding works influenced by abstract cubism and surrealism, some kind of Salvador Dalí on drugs exploring the outter and inner space. All the artwork on the sleeves of his LPs is done by himself. Spacey landscapes and psychedelic colours that fit perfectly to the music they contain.

"Nik Raicevic's music is at the intersection of radical psycho-electronic weirdness and kraut kosmische music (in particular the scifi-hypno-minimal modules of Conrad Schnitzler in Grun, Rot and Blau). It presents mega epic & tripped out electronic improvisations.

"This is an absolute must for collectors and fans of visceral, neurotic soundscapes."

"As far as late-60s / early-70s American Bedroom' Electronic Music goes, these LPS have to be among the first transmissions from this sector, made all the more attractive when coupled with Raicevic's alien topographIes - the covers are high-color portrayals of Venusian lanes, knotted growths, & future-past architecture in a style you might equate with Vintage' sci-fi pulp-novel covers - & copious Downer' sentiment. This music is imbued with a sort of lonely, anti-social sensibility that's about as far as you can get from the Academic' Early Electronic vector. I will say that if the Steve Birchall, Cellutron & the Invisible, and/or Pythagoron™ seed your garden, this will likely do the same."

Never reissued before on vinyl format, the Wah Wah reissue features original sleeve artwork made of paintings and drawings by Nik himself, and reproduction of the famous ironic "Do not listen if you are stoned" sticker. Limited edition, 500 copies only.

If you check the credits of The Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup LP from 1973 you'll find a certain "Pascal" listed on the percussion section. That is none other than Los Angeles based artist Nicolas Pascal Raicevik (1933-1994), aka 107-34-8933, aka Head, aka Nik Pascal, aka Nik Raicevic. Besides his hitting the bongoes on the Stones album, Nik was a great artist on his own, both as a painter and as a musician. As a musician, he was a pioneer in the use of synthesizers, preceeding the Berlin school by some years when his Head LP was released on on Buddah in 1970. Buddah probably saw in Head the opportunity to cash in some money from the remains of the psychedelic scene - the three tracks on the LP are named after drugs used in the late sixties. The sounds, however, are accomplished works that show Raicevic as one of the most interesting pioneers in the use of synths. The album probably didn't do too well, since Buddah didn't renew the contract with Raicevic, who instead took his own way releasing his works on his very own Narco Records and Tapes label. Between 1968 and 1975 Narco would issue 4 LPs credited either to Nik Raicevic (Beyond The End... Eternity) or Nik Pascal (The Sixth Ear, Magnetic Web and Zero Gravity) plus one credited to 107-34-8933 (Numbers, which is in fact the same LP as Buddah's Head, albeit with different cover art). Copies of these LPs came with an ironic sticker over the shrinkwrap that read "Do not listen to this LP if you are stoned".

Nik's last album, Zero Gravity (Narco NR123) came under the Nik Pascal name and had a fantastic side long piece on the title track which reminisces of the works of Cluster. B side features four tracks that also bear some Conrad Schnitzler reminiscences. This was to be Nik's last LP before he would sell all his synths to ex car racer and future electronic/ambient music star Steve Roach.

Besides his musical explorations, Nik was also an interesting painter. His paintings are auctioned from time to time, and are consciousness expanding works influenced by abstract cubism and surrealism, some kind of Salvador Dalí on drugs exploring the outter and inner space. All the artwork on the sleeves of his LPs is done by himself. Spacey landscapes and psychedelic colours that fit perfectly to the music they contain.

"Nik Raicevic's music is at the intersection of radical psycho-electronic weirdness and kraut kosmische music (in particular the scifi-hypno-minimal modules of Conrad Schnitzler in Grun, Rot and Blau). It presents mega epic & tripped out electronic improvisations.

"This is an absolute must for collectors and fans of visceral, neurotic soundscapes."

"As far as late-60s / early-70s American Bedroom' Electronic Music goes, these LPS have to be among the first transmissions from this sector, made all the more attractive when coupled with Raicevic's alien topographIes - the covers are high-color portrayals of Venusian lanes, knotted growths, & future-past architecture in a style you might equate with Vintage' sci-fi pulp-novel covers - & copious Downer' sentiment. This music is imbued with a sort of lonely, anti-social sensibility that's about as far as you can get from the Academic' Early Electronic vector. I will say that if the Steve Birchall, Cellutron & the Invisible, and/or Pythagoron™ seed your garden, this will likely do the same."

Never reissued before on vinyl format, the Wah Wah reissue features original sleeve artwork made of paintings and drawings by Nik himself, and reproduction of the famous ironic "Do not listen if you are stoned" sticker. Limited edition, 500 copies only.

New from the ever discerning Nous camp comes AYLN's RehtomEP, a 25 minute exploration of the kind of unrelenting machine music for which both artist and label have come to prominenc
.
Side A is a journey through sparse syncopated rhythms, industrial noise motifs and the kind of buzz and hum that the heroes of the second wave of techno music championed, culminating in the EP's title track 'Rehtom' which is an exercise in analogue techno mastery.

Side B's delivery is subtly more dulcet, kicking off with Digital Memories, which has a more classical techno structure than anything that came before, building intricate melodies into an otherwise taut and tightly woven electronic landscape while the closing Impulsive Sheit is a gentle downbeat number, exploring the space within the music and creating an atmospheric ambient discourse to outro the heady charge of the EP as a whole.

"The Room", Fenster's fourth album and their first release on Altin Village & Mine marks the beginning of a new chapter for the band. After releasing three albums, a feature length film, and touring extensively throughout Europe and North America since 2012, "The Room" serves as an entry point into their sonic evolution. The essential characteristic of the band is transformation - within and between genres, albums, and songs. Their sound is a window framing psychedelic, groovy, hypnogogic, playful pop.

Fenster is Elias Hock (Germany), Jonathan Jarzyna (Germany), Lucas Ufo (France) and JJ Weihl (USA). Their mission in creating this album was to compose and arrange every song together in a room. It is an experiment in collective creativity that pushed all of them to transcend their individuality and create something together which is greater than the sum of its parts.

The songs were tracked live in a house where the band ate, slept, and played together. Often the songs were recorded without implementing a click track. They were intent on finding and locking into a human groove—one open to imperfection—while still maintaining a tightness between them. They wanted to make the songs feel alive—as if the listener were present in the room with them in the moment of creation.

The album's title track "The Room" opens the record like a rollercoaster ride. There is a tension in the first bars that ties us to earth, a minimal riff that guides us to the first chorus where we feel we are slowly lifting into the air—and by the time we reach the second chorus it has exploded into a space far away from the planet's gravitational pull.

The band's use of juxtaposition is not just a way of channeling a vast library of musical genres and concepts, it is a means of expression. Combining tender pop melodies with kraut-beats, disco grooves and psychedelia frees the band from any one sound and creates a genre all its own.

This playfulness is especially vibrant in songs like "Rhythm A" and "HAHA lol" which deconstruct and fuse together disparate moments of explosive rock, tender harmonies, percussion made of splashing water, voices from a radio, and electric piano. Even "Feel Better", a sparkly pop ballad is cracked wide open by a long trippy interlude that appears unexpectedly within an otherwise classic structure.

The cover art, created by the band's own Lucas Ufo, invites us into a room in the shape of a human skull. If one looks "out" the window in the picture, one finds oneself looking in to an infinite portal of rooms within rooms. The record plays a lot with this idea of perception. In "HBW", the relationship between the bass and the drums creates the feeling of an infinity loop. The lyrics lend an enigmatic tint to the landscape of so called objective reality v. perceived reality: "I was a phase — you were going through — said I was the one but there is no one — there's only the sun — that gives shape to the moon"

The record starts with "The Room" and ends with "Two Doors". Maybe one door is an exit, and one leads to another room... who knows The song has something mysterious and expansive, like a digital ocean flooding the room, carrying everything away. The whole process of making a record is about capturing a moment in time. This is the record they made - in this point in time, all together, in a room. The last words of the record roll out with the waves: "What you leave behind for someone else to find — Two doors inside — neither one is right"

Tracklisting

Original Soundtrack - Super Deluxe Version, (including 4 tracks never released on vinyl before, this feature is exclusive to this edition, see the tracklisting), 180g vinyl, mastered at half speed, heavy cardboard old Stoughton tip-on sleeve, obi, gold sticker Info We Release Jazz is delighted to present the official reissue of the original soundtrack of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1970 film noir classic Le Cercle Rouge (starring Alain Delon, Bourvil, Gian Maria Volontè, and Yves Montand) composed by French soundtrack master Eric Demarsan, available on limited edition 180g vinyl LP mastered at half speed and including 4 bonus tracks not available on previous pressings of the album. Eric Demarsan's compositions for Le Cercle Rouge draw from the orchestral spirit of the Modern Jazz Quartet (as requested by Melville who loved John Lewis' work), abstraction and minimalism to create a suspenseful and hypnotizing audio landscape which elegantly underlines the tense atmosphere of unavoidable fate that shrouds the movie and the doleful beauty of its characters. Simply put, it's the finest combination of underworld existentialism, coldblooded chic, and crime jazz! Le Cercle Rouge boasts the participation of celebrated jazz players Guy Pedersen (bass), Daniel Humair (drums), Georges Arvanitas (piano), and Bernard Lubat (vibraphone). Starting as a collaborator of François de Roubaix and Michel Magne in the 60s, Eric Demarsan went on to become a mainstay of French cinema soundtracks, composing for directors such as Jean-Pierre Mocky, Costa-Gavras, and Patrice Leconte among others. He also recorded the cult album Pop Symphony (for Pierre Cardin in 1970) under the Jason Havelock pseudonym.

The Long Now is a duo featuring Richard Norris and Finnur Bjarnason, with special guests. They mix piano, voice, string section and electronics with the sound of the Icelandic breeze. The music sits within the post ambient, electronic, contemporary classical genre, with a strong sense of landscape, mood and melody. Richard Norris One half of the Grid, alongside Soft Cell's Dave Ball, one half of Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve with Erol Alkan... Richard Norris has a thing about working as a duo. With many productions and remixes under his belt, including tracks for Warpaint, Brian Eno, Tame Impala and many more, Richard brings an electronic sensibility to the Long Now. He has a long term passion for ambient, electronic, drone, soundtrack and modern classical music. Finnur Bjarnason Finnur Bjarnason is an Icelandic musician whose background is in classical music. Having trained to be an opera singer, rst in his native Reykjavík and later at the Guildhall School of Music and National Opera Studio in London, he then pursued an international career as an operatic tenor for over a decade, appearing in many of the world's most prestigious opera houses, singing everything from Montiverdi to Wagner to modern opera. As he has become ever more interested in where the boundaries between musical worlds get blurry, and particularly how the sound world of 'acoustic' singing world could best intersect with electronic music, he has begun an earnest exploration of the 'other side'. The Long Now play the Blue Dot Festival on Sat July 21st, with more dates to follow. The performance will be accompanied by a lm by BAFTA award winning director Kieran Evans, recently shot in Iceland. The band are currently preparing an album and series of live performances featuring piano, voice, electronics and string quintet.

The long awaited answer from the notorious southern-hemispherian sound system, Subtle Sound System. This debut release from their record label aptly named Subtle Recordings is bringing some heavy weight straight out of Christchurch, New Zealand, first up with local legend Headland. Exquisitely imprinted 'no holds bar' by the masterful Optimal Media in a full art sleeve, this 180 gram, vinyl only, no-repress recording superbly ushers in a new beginning for the sound system and is another pillar of foundation to the future sound of bass music.

Headland, with his atmospheric soundscapes, sparatic drums, jarring percussion and punishing basslines, has been taking his unique sound to the world for the past few years and has sequentially been picked up by some of the most forward thinking labels in the bass music scene. From notoriety like Innamind Recordings and Zam Zam Sounds, Headland is one of the most noteworthy artists on the scene today and is a staple in sets from artists including, Samba, Mala, VIVEK, Commodo, Sleeper, just to name a few. Headland's infamy continues on Subtle Recordings debut release with the two outstanding tracks, Quiver and Deathbed.

From a spacious beginning, Quiver quickly builds pressure, manifesting into a track that by the end of, you'll have to regroup your crew as all would have been taken on their own solo journey. Navigate through high level percussion, sonic stabs, sub-temperate basslines and menacing vocals, all encompassed within a 130 bpm landscape where the richters leave you feeling vulnerable and insignificant. Quiver is a force of nature not to be taken lightly. After setting the stage, this behemoth pushes to another level, with erratic note changes and misplaced beats, before opening up to a plateau of relative safety within rolling basslines and familiar haunts. Recollecting yourself, you are once again thrust into unknown territory. A barrage of death blows commences until eventually you find yourself on the other side, disorientated, demoralised, but thankfully unharmed. With support from dons like Gantz, Boofy, J Kenzo, Mr K, Quiver has begun to leave its mark through the next frontier of bass music.

A usually silent, still and chilly affair, Deathbed is anything but, with its uplifting groove, conscious beat scape and warm bassline. But don't get too cosy, cause this assortment of frequencies is cold. Foreboding basslines. Wholesome mids. Trademark Headland accents. Deathbed builds in monumental 140 bpm splendure, in a simplistic formation, that will have you calling home to tell Mum of your triumphant return. Bask in all the glory as the track sheds back into its essential ingredients before collapsing into a well rewarded breakdown. Another confident drop will re-immerse you within the ride, reminiscent of what has been conquered and celebrated in the dystopian sound Headland has crafted in this atmospheric masterpiece. Banging dancefloors worldwide by artists like, Commodo, VIVEK. Deathbed produces the goods for an old fashioned shelling.

First Terrace return with the second instalment of their split series, an ongoing project which sees the work of two artists illuminated in each other's light. Built on the acknowledgement that context alters perception, the light shone by the opposing track alters the shadow cast, the effect of the other. In answer to the forked road presented by FTS001, we chose the quiet path*. As such FTS002 is a journey softly travelled. These pieces will not leave a scar on the sonic landscape, rather glide above the tips of the reaching leaves, high on a different mission. Vida composed her pieces to be absorbed in complete darkness. They were exhibited as part of the project In the Dark in Berlin, 2016. The lack of visual stimulus enhances the listening experience, sharpens the ears. At the same time, the audience is made vulnerable, they cling to the sound as it is their only guide through this passage of time. More information on In the Dark can be found here. Chihei presents a new long form piece conjured with guitars and effected into abstraction. It is parallel in form to the ebb and flow of water over the margins of a beach, ever the same yet constantly renewed. *(this time)

Following a self-titled EP last year, Dario Rojo Guerra aka Natureboy Flako is set to release his second album 'Theme For A Dream' on Five Easy Pieces on 20th July 2018. Exploring the boundaries of music, science and spirituality through a prism of colourfully synthesised-sound, heart-pounding rhythm and cinematic soundtracks; the core essense of 'Theme For A Dream' is the exploration of the human inne space, the balance of musical energies and music's healing capabilities. 'Theme For A Dream' is a more electronic sounding record than his debut. Guerra makes extensive use of old and new analogue equipment such as the Juno 106, Korg's MS-20, ARP Odyssey or Roland's SH-2000 synthesisers, alongside recordings of vocals, guitars and other instruments. This serves to create a dynamic and eclectic sound spectrum, all unique to his musical handwriting. 'Theme For A Dream' will be accompanied by an experimental and interactive website that allows users to preview music while being an immersive, unique multi-sensual 4D xperience of its own. Snippets of the music from 'Theme For A Dream' become audio visual poetry and an immersive exploration of state of the art technology and oneself. 'I don't think technology necessarily means not being natural. Technology can be very much in balance with nature, since it is mostly just trying to imitate or trying to understand something from within nature. Around recording 'Theme For A Dream', Guerra also co-produced/co-wrote and engineered Kutmah's recent debut and Jitwam's forthcoming album, as well as produced almost half of Fatima's follow up album to 'Yellow Memories'. He is currently working on a film project with a London based production company and is already working on a new album, which is expected to bring back his vocal talent, previously released under the moniker Dirg Gerner.

Prayer returns to Black Acre with the 'Vital' EP, a heavy four tracker which blurs the lines between sorrowful sounds and high voltage club energy - limited to 200 hand stamped vinyl.
'A four track EP that delves further into his defiantly outsider sound. Living somewhere near the intersection of classical, jungle and ambient' - The Ransom Note
'This atmospheric modern jungle track has a bit of Burial's sad-but-sweet emotional tinge to it' - Resident Advisor

PRAYER blurs the lines between sorrowful sounds and high-voltage club energy in VITAL; a piece of art that refuses to be boxed off by genre or stereotype.

Opener FEAR explores the producers love of film music; a dark sci-fi landscape punctuated with drums and melodic synths, a Bladerunner-esque track. Moving on, A2 'I'M STILL HERE' is an anthem, a nostalgic mix of hardcore, jungle and classical influences with a DIY, rough and ready feel.

On the other side, PRAYER shows his talent for the piano with B1 - KIND, finessing the skills that reflect his first adventures in sound. It's an emotive, stripped back number. The final track is B2 - VITAL, another drum-heavy, weighty track that sounds only like PRAYER - as ideal for the club as it is for headphones

Moscow Is Mythologized For Its Grandeur And Gravity But Its Parable Pleasures Offer Splendor And Even Absurdity. Over The Ten, Symmetrical Pieces Of For, Kate Nv Scores Her Native Urban Environment With Just Enough Whimsy To Gurgle Through The City Cracks And Grow Psychotropic Foliage. Each Sound Assumes Its Own Personality, Moving Through The Album Metropolis Like Miniature, Mutating Molecules Viewed From Nv's Apartment Window.

Alternately A Guitar-wielding, Post-punker And One Within The Multitude Of Moscow Scratch Orchestra's Avant-garde, Nv Is A Versatile Artist That Maneuvers Instinctively In Whatever Musical Environs She Finds Herself. Nv's Second Solo Album Is An Even More Abstract Endeavor Than The Hybrid Pop Of 2016's Binasu. Inspired By Casual Moments Of Ephemeral Sound From Within And Beyond Her Apartment Walls, The Record Has A Clarity Arrived Altogether And From Right Under Her Nose. Recorded At Home, Nv Says It Was As If The Music Was Not Written By Herself, But Her Chair.

For Inhabits A Stage That Piero Milesi & Daniel Bacalov, Ann Southam, Or Hiroshi Yoshimura May Have Written Music For And Dresses It With Viktor Pivovarov's Psychedelic Depictions Of Moscow - Contorting Bodies, Flying Pencils, And Multi-dimensional Faces Dance With Subtle Arpeggiations, Conversational Voice Synthesis, And Anthropomorphic Midi. Animating Objects Is Essential To The Album. Like A Surreal Still Life, Each Piece Is An Alien Arrangement Of Common Elements That Extend The Everyday Ritual Into An Eternal Landscape Of Unconscious Activity. Somewhere Along That Landscape, Kate Awaits And Greets With Apples For Hands And Fish For Feet.

Like The Album Title, Each Composition Contained Within Is Represented As A Three Letter Word, In Russian And English. The First Half Of For Was Written In The Spring. Starting With yxo Ear,' Previously Released On The Peaceful Protest Compilation Cassette In 2017, Melodies Meander And Lollygag. a Two' Incorporates Human Breath Played Like Notes On A Pump Organ. Oak' Offers A Warm Tune To Tango. How' Loops Curious Notes That Bump Into Each Other With A Chirpy Acknowledgement. You,' The Only Track On For With Lyrics, Sets A Wassily Kadinsky Poem To Song.

The Second Half Of The Album Was Written In The Autumn. The Feathery Edges Of One' Extend Like Watercolors Bleeding Off A Rubber Scroll. See' Is A Subdued, Shadowy Variation Of How', As If The Same Song Were Played In Different Weather, Dimmer Light, Or By Kate's Devious Doppelganger. The Electronics Unravel And Unwind On Dog' Until The Final Track, Who,' Ends With Vague Solemnity And Rattled Metals.

A Short Online Film Series By Shura Kulak Will Accompany The Release Of For. The Films Follow A Solitary Figure Performing Ordinary Tasks Through A Slow, Warped Lens — Each Song Enacting A Daily Habit: Waking, Dressing, Reading, And So On. In Her Live Performances Around The Album, Kate Nv Will Play Each Song From Memory, Allowing For Variation From The Recorded Tracks, And Scenes From The Films Will Be Re-created And Improvised In The Moment.

'syncho Sound System & Power' Features The Music Of Nigeria Fuji Machine,
Which Includes Some Of The Country's Finest 'fuji' Master Drummers And Singers, And Is Newly Recorded By Soul Jazz Records In Lagos, Nigeria. Fuji Is The Heavily Percussive And Improvisational Style Of Nigerian Popular Music, At Once Modern And Yet Deeply Rooted In The Traditional Islamic Yoruba Culture Of Nigeria.
Here On This Album Nigeria Fuji Machine's Striking And Powerful Lead Vocalist Taofik Yemi Fagbenro Soars Above A Wild And Energetic Backdrop Of Polyrhythms Played On Traditional Talking Drums, Trap Drums, Electronic And Street Percussion To Create A Powerful Wall Of Intense Sound. Fuji Is A Hi-energy Street Music, Heavily Percussive Which Evolved Out Of The Islamic Celebration Of Ramadan, Which Became A Major Event In Mid-20th Century Lagos. Groups Of Young Men Walked Through Muslim Neighbourhoods At Night Singing Improvised 'wéré' Music To The Accompaniment Of Pots, Pans, Drums, Bells
And Anything Else Available, Waking Believers For The Early Morning Prayer. By The Early 1970s This Music Had Crossed-over Into Popular Nigerian Culture Where It Came To Be Known As Fuji, First Made Popular By The Artist Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, As The Music Began To Be Performed Commonly At Parties And Social Events. In The 1970s And 1980s Three Nigerian Artists - King Sunny Adé, Chief Ebonezer Obey And Fela Kuti - All Secured International Major Record Deals Bringing Popularity To The Nigerian Musical Styles Of Juju (adé And Obey) And Afro-beat (fela Kuti's Unique Mixture Of Highlife, Funk And Jazz) Abroad, But In The Process Ignoring Much Of Nigeria's Rich Musical Landscape. Fuji Is, Alongside Highlife, Juju, Afro-beat, Sakara, Afro-reggae, Waka, Igbo Rap, Apala And Numerous Others - One Of These Central Styles Of Nigerian Music. The Singer Barrister Described The Music As Follows: 'fuji Music Is A Combination Of Music Consisting Of Sakara, Apala, Juju, Aro, Afro, Gudugudu, And Possibly Highlife.' Juju Performer King Sunny Adé Described The Difference Between The Two
Styles Of Fuji And Juju Somewhat Competitively Thus: 'fuji Music Is More Or Less Like My Music Without Guitars. It's Like I'm Singing In A Major Key And They Are Singing In A Minor. The Music Itself Is The Music Of Juju Music.' Today Fuji Remains A Powerful Popular Music With Deep And Powerful Islamic Roots
Which Continues To Modernise And Attract New Generations Of Young Nigerians And Nigeria Fuji Machine's 'syncho Sound System & Power' Is A Powerful And Intense Musical Experience. This Album Is Released As A Limited-edition Heavyweight Vinyl Edition (+free Download Code), Deluxe Cd And Digital Format.

A Site-specific Recording Sporting A Straightforward Approach That I've Grown To Love In The Works Of Gonçalo Cardoso. An Album Of Modern Day Exotica, A Genre I Usually Pretty Much Dislike, Yet Cardoso Steers His Vehicle Easily Aside The Trapdoors And Potholes.

Combining Found Sounds, Sparse Playing And Field Recordings He Creates A World That Both Invokes Treasure Island, And An Essay On Exoticism. Indeed Questions Are Raised. But Especially Beautiful Emotions Are Shared. Cardoso Acts Both Like The Journalist And The Aesthetic. Sometimes He Just Registers, As Being The Observer At The Sideline, Sometimes He Alters And Collages The Material Into New Worlds.

The Isle Of Unguja Is The Great Scene Of This Album. We Hear The Sound Of Water, Suddenly Interrupted By Beautiful Chorals Or The Strumming Of String Instruments, A Drum Beat. We Hear The Local Fisherman Talk While The Shortwave Radio Becomes The Symbol Of The White Man Seeking Truth And Direction In The Tropics. Its Dial As A Tool To Reflect. This Album Invokes A Certain Nostalgia For Age-old Enthnographies, Like A Romantic Letter From The Tropics. A Hymn Of Solitude, In Awe Of The Nonhuman And Human Elements. Like Photography, Through Various Compositions - Stills From A Moment - To Shed Light Upon The Unique - Universal Process Of A Place.

"all The Recordings Were Made During Our Month Long Stay In A Beach Hut In The Main Island Of The Zanzibar Archipelago, Unguja Aka Zanzibar Island. Unlike Other Beach/island Locations The Scenery There Was Very Dynamic And Ever Changing. The Colours Would Change With Every Tide Creating A New Washed Out Landscape Everyday.
There Are A Lot Of Recordings Of Tides (they Have 3km Tides Everyday!), Of Walking Around In Low Tide, Of The Tidal Waves Banging Against Our Hut At Night, Of Sailing In Wooden Dhows, Fishermen Talking And Sand Washing Their Dhows, Of Walking At Night In The Village As Well As Some Fm/am Radio Improvs. A Lot Of What You Hear Was Done On The Spot With Some Minor Adjustments Done Later. (g F Cardoso)"

Gonçalo Cardoso Is The Man Behind The Prolific Discrepant Recordlabel And Composes Under His Own Name And The Moniker Gonzo. He Recently Traveled In Middle And Southern America.

Heady, astute, deep techno and ambient from Blue Veil, a new musical project from Danny Clancy. Blue Veil's debut EP reveals gorgeously textured techno on tracks like 'wherethetimegoes' and 'Citizen Score', as well as crafting some tender ambient passages on cuts like 'Night Czar' and 'A Kind Of Adventure'.
The EP will be released on Dichotomy Records, a new imprint, dedicated to refined electronic music. The label's ambition is to allow artists to explore dichotomies through their work, as they span sonic landscapes from pure ambient to techno, and other abstract dance sounds in-between. There will be a strong attention to the visual presentation of the label, with all artwork and photography also created by label boss Danny Clancy.
With the next release lined up from Ahu, and more to follow from there, the agenda for Dichotomy Records looks hugely promising indeed.

The ep comes in 300 copies packed in hand burnt sleeves on the front and a silkscreen print on the back

Eocity is the result of a study on technological failure and the imagination of a non-existent urban landscape.

This project features the use of a Yamaha ex5r, one of the rst synths to ever implement VL synthesis.

The "Yamaha Virtual Acoustic" Synthesis tone generation was born to try to accurately emulate the complex vibrations and other acoustic phenomena of real instruments and their sounds within space, but the dubious results of this technology gave birth to something more.

Its nal output sound happens to be cold and synthetic while being also organic and warm at the same time, welcoming the listeners into a feeling of an arti cial world that is neither digital nor analog.

In this world man is not around anymore and the binary language survived him, communicating with the rest of the natural environment, in respect of its laws and dynamics, becoming one indistinct entity.

Eocity is a place that exists in between the imaginary and the real one, gently oating as a digital tactile experience.

Shunter, the new album by the Berlin-based duo Driftmachine, is their most ambitious work to date. Although instantly recognizable, featuring their trademark Kosmische and Avant-garde sounds, it also presents a new journey into abstract and hallucinatory worlds. Filled with eerie textures, their electronic visions are darker and more vaporous than ever.

Driftmachine's fourth album (also the fourth one for Umor Rex) offers a new perspective on their ample sound spectrum and systemic narratives. Shunter overlaps and mutates their post-industrial-dub motives. It was conceived and produced in search of a very different kind of imagery, with sections of noise and field recordings intersecting with analogue sounds, a mixture of contrasted fragments, where the usual creative process of modular-synthesis leads Gerth and Zimmer to the discovery of a dark, hazy and diffused experience. There is a protean quality to the rhythmic elements, with tempos constantly contracting and expanding, a departure from the mono-beat-rhythms of "Nocturnes" and "Colliding Contours". The first half of Shunter is made of four pieces named "Shift", although individually separated, they are conceptually linked and can be understood as a sort of score. Imagine a late stage of the industrial revolution, with the interaction between heavy machinery and human beings. The second half of the album is not completely separated, but it has three other substantial melodic moments. Somewhere between the hauntological and the realms of archive-music, a huge range of subterranean beats and distinct patterns dotting the landscape of early electronic and post dub music.

All songs written & produced by Driftmachine (Andreas Gerth & Florian Zimmer), Berlin.
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Design by Daniel Castrejón.

Music and Poetry of the Kesh is the documentation of an invented Pacific Coast peoples from a far distant time, and the soundtrack of famed science fiction author, Ursula K. Le Guin's Always Coming Home In the novel, the story of Stone Telling, a young woman of the Kesh, is woven within a larger anthropological folklore and fantasy. The ways of the Kesh were originally presented in 1985 as a five hundred plus page book accompanied with illustrations of instruments and tools, maps, a glossary of terms, recipes, poems, an alphabet (Le Guin's conlang, so she could write non-English lyrics), and with early editions, a cassette of field recordings' and indigenous song. Le Guin wanted to hear the people she'd imagined, she embarked on an elaborate process with her friend Todd Barton to invoke their spirit and tradition.

For Music and Poetry of the Kesh, the words and lyrics are attributed to Le Guin as composed by Barton, an Oregon-based musician, composer and Buchla synthesist (the two worked together previously on public radio projects). But the cassette notes credit the sounds and voices to the world of the Kesh, making origins ambiguous. For instance, The River Song' description reads, The prominent rhythm instrument is the doubure binga, a set of nine brass bowls struck with cloth-covered wooden mallets, here played by Ready.' According to writer and long-time friend of LeGuin, Moe Bowstern (who pens the liners for the Freedom To Spend edition of Kesh), Barton built and then taught himself to play several instruments of Le Guin's design, among them the seven-foot horn known to the Kesh as the Houmbúta and the Wéosai Medoud Teyahi bone flute.' Barton's crafting of original instruments lends an other-worldly texture to the recordings of the Kesh, not unlike fellow builders Bobby Brown and Lonnie Holley. Bowstern notes, Other musician / makers have crafted their own Kesh instruments after encountering the earlier cassette recordings that accompanied some editions of the book.' Both Barton and Le Guin are sensitive to the sovereignty of indigenous Californians and were careful not to trample the traditions of the Tolowa people who lived in the valley long before the Kesh. You research deeply, and then you bring your own voice to the table,' said Barton. Within the Kesh culture, the numbers four and five shape the lives, society and rituals. Barton composed loosely around these numbers, patiently listening to the land of Napa Valley for signs and audio signals from the natural elements. Todd incorporated ambient sounds of the creek by Le Guin's house and a campfire they built together. The songs of Kesh are joyful, soothing and meditative, while the instrumental works drift far past the imaginary lands. Heron Dance' is an uplifting first track, featuring a Wéosai Medoud Teyahi (made from a deer or lamb thigh bone with a cattail reed) and the great Houmbúta (used for theatre and ceremony). A Music of the Eighth House' sends gossamer waves of the faintest sounds to float on the wind.' Like the languages invented in the vocal work of Anna Homler, Meredith Monk, and Elizabeth Fraser, the Kesh songs and poems play with the shape of voice.

The Music and Poetry of the Kesh cassette was meant to accompany and enhance the experience of reading Always Coming Home. Presented in this edition as a long-playing album, where only traces of the book linger (the jacket offers some of Le Guin's illustration, and a letterpressed bookmark featuring the the narrative modes of western civilization and the Kesh valley is included), the music alone breaking the silence of what might be. It can transport—offering a landscape for imagining a future homecoming. One in which we are balanced, peaceful, and tend to the earth and its creatures. A line from the Sun Dance poem reminds us, We are nothing much without one another.' Freedom To Spend gives new life to the recordings of the Kesh people in the first ever vinyl edition of Music and Poetry of the Kesh, out on LP, and digital formats on March 23, 2018. The LP will include a deluxe spot printed jacket with illustrations from Always Coming Home, a facsimile of the original lyric sheet, liner notes by Moe Bowstern, multi-format digital download code and a limited edition bookmark letter pressed by Stumptown Printers in Portland, OR.

This past Monday, January 22, Ursula passed from this realm to another leaving a life spent building and exploring other worlds while challenging social concepts of the real word she inhabited.

Freedom To Spend had been working under Ursula's enthusiastic endorsement and with Todd Barton, her musical collaborator on Kesh, to give the music that accompanied her 1985 epoch a new life. With the Le Guin family's encouragement to move forward with our planned release, we are humbled to play this small role in sharing Ursula's work.

As Pete Swanson, one third of Freedom To Spend, stated, Ursula's legacy is her work which transformed the world, and this is another piece of the universe that her imagination birthed becoming real.' Listen to A Teaching Poem / Heron Dance' below.

With this new work Maurizio Abate recovers the discourse started with Loneliness, Desire and Revenge (2016) but with a different narrative sensitivity. The symbolic air that you breathe suggests a personal and universal experience in which thoughts and perceptions remain as enveloped in an eternal cosmic wheel. It's a condition that flows sincerely into an emphatic introspection and identification between the stasis of an inner soul and the flowing vitality of stagnant aquatic landscapes. In this direction the music of Abate always condenses multiple ranges of different emotional spectra evoked by profound naturalistic references. The airy openings of the strings, the distant whispers of the harmonica, cascades of phrasings more calm or more torrential can lead into the magnificent climax of the Nostalgia. The string arrangement for violin and cello by Lucia Gasti introduces in a dimension of idyll, in elegiac passages of touching poetry almost of chamber music but at the same time wet by the pastoral and bucolic moods of autumn landscapes, they are paintings imbued with different flavors and colours that recall the light and the candor of the Venetian tonalisms or the moving paintings full of meaning of Tarkoski. In the darkest and saddest moments the open chords are like suspensions of unresolved questions and torments, but the cathartic finale with a free and minimalist piano prelude to possible future glares, almost to perceiving that even where there's stasis the sun can still shine the hope for the new on the clearing of the pond. Remains the feeling with that stylistic "freedom of expression" dear to the visionaries Fahey and Basho, but also a clear interpretation of the expressive possibility of the lead guitar, absolutely lyrical and contemporary for refinement of the crystalline sound, which places this work in parallel with the basic acoustic tests of others great like Jim O'Rourke, Jack Rose or James Blackshaw.

It's time for a fresh new release from the Apollonia stable, and this time around we unveil four groovy gems from Shonky and Tolga Fidan working together for the first time, giving us a winning combination and one which is sure to satisfy fans of both artists. The first track 'Dynamo' sets the tone for the EP; the bassline has a deadly groove, while playful effects dance around at the top end creating an immersive atmosphere. Intergalactic vibes. After that comes 'Bastille', which features a similarly jaunty rhythm with a variety of bleeps, chirps and twangs layered on top on each other to give the track its depth and character, while a menacing b-line does its dirty work in the low end.On the flip we get 'Micro-Ondes', a mysterious into the undiscovered lands of planet funk. You feel as though you've been transported to another world, where warped creatures lurk, calling out for your attention. As for the bass, its rhythm is utterly contagious. Finally 'Americana' completes the collection, maintaining the unusual use of sound prevalent throughout the EP it utilises a myriad distorted instruments. Support in the low end comes via a tough, punchy bass riff.

Unterton kicks off 2018 sideways with three tracks of high-octane electronics by Mark. 0-160 BPM in 15 minutes. Previous EPs for A Colourful Storm had a conceptual focus: the destructive effects of tech start-ups on Berlin's cultural landscape. Sound-wise, they paired frenetic, experimental d'n'b with musique concrète. On his Unterton debut, Mark continues further down a path of dark and psychedelic beat science. At times tranquil and hypnotic, other times charging forward between cracked whips and whiplash left-turns. 'Comedy is the dog that walks out of the room when you call its name."

Here Appear is an invocation, a salutation, and a celebration — of past and perfect lives, forgotten and remembered, exchanged and borrowed. Eve Essex's solo debut is a multi-instrumental fea(s)t combining synthesizer, drum machine, alto saxophone, piccolo, electric organ/harpsichord, harmonica, slide whistle, bells, guitar pedals, and voice— composed, arranged, and performed by Essex herself. What began as an improv set at Berlin's Harlekin bar, developed over the past two years into a complete body of work evoking multiple time periods, genres, characters, and sonic landscapes. The seven tracks that make up Here Appear harness elements of classical, drone, avant-jazz, and distorted pop, coupled with an ambitious vocal delivery that draws on the phrasing and articulations of Essex's own woodwind playing, to create a quasi-narrative me´lange retaining the vulnerability of live performance. On the opening track Grind Away,' otherworldly harmonica strains set the stage for lyrics citing Chinese sci-fi novel The Third Body Problem as source material. Saxophone and piccolo interludes Immediate Communicator' and Colorless Stone' move between medieval-tinged melodic inventions and textural noise, recalling a Pharoah Sanders-influenced fever dream, while the linguistic abstractions of Russian conceptual poet Lev Rubinstein guide the looped, layered, and textured vocals of title track Here Appear.' The album closes with a languid take on Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom's 1978 composition Clear Light' from My New Music, recently reissued by Unseen Worlds. Here Appear owes its minimal production to the conditions of its genesis, evidencing the restrained process of the solo artist, instrumentation is confined to what can be played simultaneously. True to the album's avant-garde roots, each song involves an element of improvisation, often taking the form of prompts or variations on a melody rather than explicit compositions. Even its most structured pieces make use of live-sampled loops, which inject a spirited unpredictability into the songwriting process and subsequent performance. Classically trained in bassoon at New England Conservatory before receiving a BFA in sculpture from RISD, Eve Essex has performed as a solo artist at Artists Space, Commend, Safe Gallery, Signal, Trans Pecos, and U.S. Blues, in New York, Harlekin/Mathew Gallery and StudioAcht in Berlin, and the PUFFERSS Festival in Providence, RI. In addition to her solo practice, Essex regularly performs as one half of Das Audit (with Craig Kalpakjian), as well as in trios Hesper (with James K and Via App) and HEVM (with MV Carbon and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix), and has collaborated extensively with Juan Antonio Olivares as installation/performance-art duo Essex Olivares. Prior to the LP release on Sky Walking (April, 20), Here Appear arrives via New York City-based label Soap Library on March 9, 2018 in both cassette and digital format, mastered by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin and recorded by Al Carlson at Gary's Electric, Brooklyn.

This is the first album of Borusiade, in which she takes her music to a new level, finding her very own expression, that is making us first shiver then sweat, then chill and finally melt.

Cómeme starts 2018 by proving again to be a safe haven and a sanctuary for sensitive plants and unique characters devoted to music - just like Miruna Boruzescu aka Borusiade - from Bucharest - who conquered the radio stations of our parallel worlds and utopian desire. 'Dream catcher' was the name of the show, and 'Jeopardy', a nocturnal EP, her first release on vinyl.

Now, after adventurous travels through night clubs, theatres, windy cities, snowy fields and merciless deserts her desires and imagination have manifested themselves in her very first album, carrying the intriguing title: 'A Body'

The record sleeve features the back of her head, making us wonder what she sees, on the other side. Her visions unfold through 8 pieces of music that follow a dreamlike narrative of associations and transformations. Somber synthetic atmospheres, sparse and spatial rhythmical arrangements, strangely seductive melodies and lysergic ally pulsating bass lines lead us away from a dystopian present towards a sensorial experience we long to repeat as soon as it's over.

'A Body' is a deeply poetic work in which again and again you will hear Borusiade's voice, sometimes dissolving and recreating meanings in mantra-like repetitions, sometimes layering itself to pagan choirs of smooth ecstasy. Then again you will also hear that voice close to you, singing, sharing an experience or a thought. It is always soft, effortless and unpretentious, but always strong, clear and precise, like the voice that speaks to you in an altered state of consciousness. It seems to come from the same person that is holding your hand, when everything else seems to fade into uncertainty while wandering through strange times and places...

Starting with the song CLUSTER the effect is kicking in, we sink into the universe of the album through this throbbing ambience that seems populated by a reverberated ant colony that broke into a synthesizer. The introduction of this album is a complex emotional soundscape that is followed by a song: BREATHE, which sounds like a classic you never heard. With its catchy melancholia, it creates a déjà vu like strange familiarity of the unknown - a memory from the future. And though our minds were just twisting and turning in an overflow of information, we suddenly leave our bodies and observe ourselves breathe.

Other tracks, like DORMANT are more focused on the narration of the body and its state. Words, describing it in many ways, softly and incessantly repeated, are mixed deeply into the soundscapes of a track that features a bass drum so soft it could be a heartbeat. Foggy moments like these dissolve in a track like AN ACUARIAN FEELING, which is queer synthesizer love, shifting in shape and momentum, a ray of light that pushes itself through the nightly atmosphere that was preceding these moments, a similar landscape in different times - a choir enters, cheerful drums, climbing and descending melodies and rhythms of hope. Just like the utopian vision in the title track A BODY, that stands at the end of this journey, which in itself just opens another new horizon.

2x12" Repress

Answer Code Request returns with his sophomore album Gens on Ostgut Ton, entering darker but equally bass-heavy territory.
Answer Code Request's 2014 debut LP Code was an exciting moment for electronic music in Berlin - one that offered a break from the eternal hall and monolithic 4/4 kicks that ruled the city's club landscape. As a hybrid gesture, the album's spirit recalled an especially fruitful era in the German capital from the mid-90s to early 2000s, when dub and paddriven Detroit techno cross-pollinated with Berlin's industrial aesthetic to create one of the city's most exciting musical chapters.
Today the musical vision offered by Berghain resident Answer Code Request, real name Patrick Gräser, has proved far-sighted. While at first glance electronic music in 2018 seems increasingly balkanized, borders between genres have once again become fuzzier.
Now, on his follow up LP Gens, Gräser looks beyond the bass euphoria of Code toward darker horizons and a desolate atmosphere befitting of current global circumstances.
In a sense, Gens (Latin for tribe or lineage) reverses the notion of the hardcore continuum as proposed by music journalist Simon Reynolds: embedded in a tradition of US andcontinental European techno, Gräser seeks its disruption through hardcore outgrowths, from ambient jungle to later variations of British bass music and IDM. It's an interesting twist when seen in the larger biographical context of Gräser who, born and raised outside of Berlin in early 1980s, jumped from East German youth radio DT64 to American hip-hop, acid and early UK hardcore - a radical shift of musical interest born of a radical shift in political circumstances. On Gens, the unsettling atmosphere is established early on with the fading rave opener of the album's synonymous title track, and continues through the scrambled military communications and post dubstep rhythms of 'Sphera'. From there, sci-fi pads, heavy phasing and alien syncopation lead explorative third track 'Ab Intus' out into space. Aglimmer of otherworldly positivity arrives with the warm, distorted breakbeats and interwoven synth melodies of album standout 'knbn2', while Gräser's most dancefloororiented melds jungle and techno, Amen and 4/4 kicks, on 'Cicadae'.

Experimental Spanish composer and multi-instrumentalist Pepo Gala´n makes his vinyl debut with an exquisite record of carefully orchestrated ambient pieces.
Conceived as a fierce response to the gradual decay of our society, "Human Values Disappear" takes us on a trip to the darkest corners of a dysfunctional world, painting a broken landscape with deeply arresting and meditative drones.
Composed initially on a vintage Casiotone, the album was further enriched with lush and spacious arrangements, giving the songs a newfound intensity. In this effort, Pepo Gala´n surrounded himself with talented artists Lee Yi and David Cordero, each of whom bring their unique approach to composition into play. The result is an eclectic, yet deeply cohesive palette of sounds that flow seamlessly into each other, creating a moody ambiance that permeates everything.
Despite the bleak tones and subject matter, Pepo Gala´n is able to strike a balance between darkness and hope, allowing glimpses of light ("Half Moon", "Old Testament") to filter through the sheer sonic intensity of the fiercest tracks ("We Are All Welcome Here", "Almost Alone in this Life"). This transition is better exemplified on the album's centerpiece "Sacred Autumn", a collaboration with David Cordero that starts off with an elegant string section, gradually building into a guitar feedback climax that slowly fades off, paving the way for an epic closing number.
By the time we hear the last sounds of "Few Dollar More", the emotional impact of the record is undeniable. "Human Values Disappear" is indeed one of the most sincere, enigmatic and life- affirming records that Pepo Gala´n has ever produced.

That we live in a world changed is beyond question. Since 2015's Zenith, Berlin-based songwriter Molly Nilsson has surrendered to the world, traveling from Mexico to Glasgow, observing the changing socio-political landscape and imagining a better world. For an artist who has so successfully created her own environment and gradually let others in, her 8th studio album Imaginations sees Nilsson directly engaging with her surroundings, engendering change and allowing love in. Imaginations dreams big, recasting storming, stadium-sized pop into the internal language of the solo auteur. Imaginations is not escapism, it's a kaleidoscope and an alternative view, an agent of change.Opener Tender Surrender encapsulates Imaginations, a tango on the ruins of the past, like many of Nilsson's best songs a collision between the political and personal. Though potentially a love song, there's a glowing anger in the lines I want your ruin, I want destruction, I won't be through until we mend this...' this is rapturous transformation, order and chaos. Molly has built an almost 10 year career on perfectly summing up how we feel and this is no different... Who else could write a song about privilege (Let's Talk About Privileges) and make a heart-rending chorus of It's never being afraid of the police, it's expecting every thank you, every please.' The artist's vision on this album is perhaps more forceful than the emotionally fragile moments of previous album Zenith, at times exemplified on songs like Memory Foam, a bright, driving pop song that belies themes of nostalgia and the past, reminding us that Molly alone can make us feel so welcome in loneliness. If there's overt anger in songs like Money Never Sleeps, an anthem for a post-capitalist utopia if ever there was one, there's also seams of optimism sewn into the album's genetic code. Any revolutionary will tell you that anger alone achieves nothing - Nilsson's mission on Imaginations is to offer some alternatives we can hold close. Not Today Satan is a song about accepting love as the agent of change, Don't be sad, but do get mad at all the small men who act so tall, in the end they always fall, there ain't no sin in giving in to love, that's just how we're winning the fight.' Love can be visceral, a weapon with which to fight the power.On Imaginations Molly is recasting her interior monologue as a prism through which to see the world, a means to live differently and to reject the status quo. We can Think Pink, change our destiny together. This is an optimism about the future when we need it the most. New boys, new girls.. give me your smile and I'll give you mine' Clearly, we are living through a transformation but with alchemists like Molly Nilsson, we're never alone in the process.

Idle Hands continues its quest to support new talent coming out of Bristol with a fresh 12" from local beatsmith Crump. Up to this point, he's been quietly slipping out razor sharp reduced house cuts on various artist releases for Extended Play and Banoffee Pies, but it's high time he had a 12" of his to truly showcase his sound.

The two tracks on this single tap into a consistent thread on Idle, fusing the minimal sensibilities of contemporary European house music with a swung, dub-weighted presence fit for soundsystem consumption in the fair city we call home. Much like previous releases from Leif, Christian Jay and Matt Karmil, this is a demonstration of stripped down music loaded with swagger.

"Ice & Spheres" pivots around an ear-snagging 2-step shuffle that cuts through any mix, but there's scores of subtlety woven in between the drums to reward the attentive listener. Snatches of vocal, distant field recordings, low-blowing synth licks and other unidentifiable sonic matter lurk quietly in the mix to cast a spell on the sleep-deprived twitcher and warm-up head-nodder alike.

Sporting a brighter disposition thanks to the sheen of its chords, "Mechanisms" provides a different vibe on the flip. The beat throws down with a rugged nod to West London broken styles while still tapping into that aforementioned continental 4/4 sensibility, injecting a refreshing variation into the densely populated minimal house landscape while maintaining the meditative qualities that keep the genre close to our hearts.

E.D.C wishes to explore electronic music through different universes where spaces, noises and textures are central to the creative process. His researches aim to experiment and think outside the box, allowing us to navigate through purposely-colored music and other worlds where Every Detail Counts.

In this first release, the reverberations in each track create a shaking outcome that warns about the upcoming epic adventure with the wind of indestructibility that the tracks blow in our direction.

Endless is the key to understanding the whole release. Electric from the first second, it explains the journey we are about to embark on. Dark and almost gloomy from the beginning, the break gives the impression of a light breakthrough, as if the way suddenly clears.

The City of Clones takes us to a heavy atmosphere, as if we were waiting in the middle of a fog for the untying of the plot, though the denouement remains uncertain.

When Nobody Cares is an experimental journey through unexplored landscapes, with the discoveries marching under our eyes, which contribute to create an experience of fullness.

Too Many Ifs reminds and completes the cycle. Chaotic on purpose, it unveils the encounter of an intriguing living shape.

Cryosleep is the debut album from Null + Void, the alias of prolific New York producer Kurt Uenala. It's an album of contrasts and tension, where darkness is pierced by blinding light, and where moody new wave bleeds into stark electronics. In one moment, joyful memories give way to isolation and regret, and in the next, Cryosleep explores the catharsis of crowded dancefloors. Throughout the record, Uenala matches his dynamic production with incredible vocalists-from Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan and the inimitable Shannon Funchess, to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Big Pink. Null + Void's take on dark pop meshes with his love for Detroit electro, poignant synth melodies, and cold atmospheres. With the cinematic opener 'Falling Down' and brooding instrumentals like 'Come To Me", Cryosleep can feel like the soundtrack to a lost space epic. No doubt, the album evokes Blade Runner, dystopian landscapes, and the splendor of far-off galaxies. As Uenala puts it, Cryosleep is inspired by 'classic sci-fi stuff,' images of futuristic machines sustaining humans frozen in a dreamstate. The melancholy 'Foreverness' explores what they might be thinking: 'A collection of fragments, memories of a life lived-preserved, but incomplete and jumbled.' Meanwhile, 'Into The Void' paints a peaceful, otherworldly picture, 'like soaring towards a white light.'

Eight releases in, Leonidas & Hobbes have honed a mutual love of soundtracks, disco, jazz, house, techno, acid, psychedelic, African and dub sounds.
Web Of Intrigue is one part tribute to lost 70s soundtracks, when music was created on the finest analogue hardware, featuring full bands, session players and lush orchestrations, one part tribute to 70s disco gods Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (Chic) and one part mid-tempo but nonetheless cosmic house. The three parts fuse to form an instrumental track sounding as fresh as a whole meadow of daisies in 2017 and one that's been going down extremely well with international DJs who have road-tested the material.
Heavy Weather flips the script for a deeper workout in a 3/4 time signature - more of a cosmic waltz. Taking its main cue from 70s jazz fusion heroes Weather Report and The Doors' Ray Manzarek, it incorporates rich African percussion, spaced-out flourishes exhibiting the duo's love for the dubs of Lee Perry, King Tubby et al, and a good old fashioned arpeggio of an acid line - definitely a more esoteric number, all told.
The 'Dawn' and 'Acid Rain' mixes push different buttons for the heads, as suits the mood. It all adds up to a very Balearic confection, fitting snugly in with the burgeoning revival for this somewhat ineffable sound - a trend that seems to be getting stronger/bigger every year, popping up every time the sun gets his hat on and we all remember how to party like the lucky residents of that infamous White Isle....
MORE INFO
London/Edinburgh analogue electronic duo Leonidas & Hobbes released debut EP "Machines, Tapes & Electronic Setups" via the Hobbes Music label back in May 2013, picking up plaudits and support from the likes of Resident Advisor, Mixmag, Erol Alkan, Ashley Beedle, Alan Braxe, Shadow Child, Jimpster, Nick Warren, M.A.N.D.Y., Leftside Wobble, Mr G, Auntie Flo, Sasha, John Digweed and many more... The duo were consequently commissioned to remix the Pet Shop Boys.
Second EP "Mo' Machines" came out on the label in April 2014 and received equally high praise, with i-D Magazine inviting the duo to record a DJ mix which has to date chalked up a whole lot of love on Soundcloud.
Leonidas has released two other collaborative EPs with London-based Japanese DJ/producer Kay Suzuki via his Round In Motion imprint, equally winning fans worldwide, with a track now forthcoming on new label YAM Records' You And Music Volume 1 EP plus much more in the pipeline for 2017. Leonidas also has his own lovetoparty label, releasing edits of much-loved disco tunes on limited edition 12" vinyl format and free download. Previously, Leonidas made a name for throwing word-of-mouth parties around east London on his audiophile 'lovetoparty' sound system (providing some of the inspiration for much-admired late-night watering hole Brilliant Corners).
Equally, Hobbes ran the widely acclaimed Trouble nights for ten years in Edinburgh/Scotland, working with the great and the good from across the soul/jazz/dance spectrum since '02, and championed up-and-coming live talent via his Limbo 'gig-in-a-club' nights at The Voodoo Rooms for nine years since '07. Hobbes has toured his DJing style to the various corners of the dancing planet, including gigs in the Far East, much of Europe and across the UK. The Hobbes Music label has otherwise featured artists as diverse as Auntie Flo, JD Twitch (Optimo), Neil Landstrumm, Craig Smith (6th Borough Project), Ali Renault, iO Sounds, Joe Howe, Debukas, Fudge Fingas, Marco Bernardi, Dimitri Veimar, Mick Wills and Nightwave, with further support from Ben UFO, Justin Robertson, Motor City Drum Ensemble, KiNK, The Revenge, T.E.E.D, Kiki, Groove Armada, Maceo Plex, OOFT!, Domenic Capello (Sub Club), XDB, Ben Mono, Masa Sutela, Bawrut/Scuola Furano, Numbers, John Heckle and many more...

'Great Many Arrows' is the 6th studio album from Damien Dubrovnik, the Danish duo of Loke Rahbek and Christian Stadsgaard. It is also the 200th release on their Posh Isolation label, marking 8 years for both the label and project. The label's inception came with Damien Dubrovnik's debut album, and since then the two have been inseparable. Without Damien Dubrovnik there would most likely have been no Posh Isolation, and vice versa.

'Great Many Arrows' is undoubtedly a high point in the varied discographies of both Rahbek and Stadsgaard. It is the most realized Damien Dubrovnik recording to date, and a standout in Posh Isolation's troves.

As a record, 'Great Many Arrows' manages to translate the intensity of the duo's often unrestrained live shows in to carefully crafted studio productions. Unlike the pair's earlier and largely electronic recordings, the compositions on 'Great Many Arrows' set organs, cellos, violas, wind and other acoustic instruments against the backdrop of an electronic landscape.

The new toolset is as apparent on the surface as it is in the enclosed detail, taking the project further from its noise roots than it has ever been. This is not to say that Rahbek and Stadsgaard have traded ferocity for formal constraint. It is rather the opposite. While 'Great Many Arrows' is certainly the pair's most 'musical' work to date, its veneer of accessibility might also make it their most terrifying.

The strength of the recording lies here in the interaction between the melodic, acoustic instrumentation and the bulldozing electronics. Moments of beauty and light are transfigured into utter chaos and rage, the mesmerising change an expression of the equal and opposite form's natural sway as it beckons and slips between its own passing.

'Great Many Arrows' takes its name from a historic archery competition in Kyoto, Japan, in which archers would shoot as many arrows as possible for a 24 hour period. On April 26, 1686, Wasa Daihachiro from Kishu successfully shot 8,133 out of 13,053 arrows, averaging 544 arrows an hour, or 9 arrows a minute, becoming the record holder.

Your Planet Is Next: a bold threat! Are we talking about Earth The apocalypse Well, with the Doomsday Clock set 30 seconds closer to catastrophe following recent political happenings, Arvid Wretman might be on to something. Or is it a message for planets beyond; a warning of our inevitable interplanetary colonialism in light of the above Wretman's celestial, machine-driven other worldly tracks suggest an attempt to communicate beyond the realms of E*rth.

Making his recorded debut in 2014 with a limited edition self-released cassette tape, Your Planet Is Next quickly caught the ears of those paying attention. He followed up with Junk Yard Connection's debut long player, featuring a more refined set of electro productions that bounced jovially, chugged menacingly and punched erratically and since then; has released a more dusty, experimental cassette offering on Opal Tapes as well as a fantastically lighthearted and life affirming EP for Studio Barnhus (featuring a cover of Cher's 'Believe', believe it or not!)

Fast forward to 2017 and Arvid crash lands on planet Acid Waxa (rumoured to be something of a spiritual home coming) in slick Scandinavian style with I Just Disco; 4 irresistible cuts spanning acid, house, electro and outsider pop at it's most charming and with a tour of the UK to boot!

Pocosin is the first full-length album from Loess in over 10 years.

During the last ice age glaciers slowly carved away the landscape creating mineral rich sediment. For hundreds of thousands of years melt water carried this fine-grained sediment downstream to parts of North America. In some areas strong winds carried this sediment and deposited it forming a network of ridges and dunes. These deposits of loose
silty wind-blown, or aeolian, sediment are called Loess.

Flash forward to the present, and the duo of Clay Emerson and Ian Pullman may seem to have gone the way of the glaciers and all but disappeared. Instead, their signature loose aural silt has been slowly and methodically accumulating and now makes up their new full-length Pocosin.

Others may have no point of reference and Pocosin is a welcome introduction to the sound of Loess; in a mere blink of an eye from when they began.

Toby Tobias can be found in the shadows of South London. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. On side A, 'Gravitator' evolves slowly over ten minutes from a somber intro of supernatural sighs, pulsing machine feedback and techno squelches into an ethereal landscape peppered with dissonant fragments of synth. With side B's 'Right Turn To Nowhere', Toby stretches out even further, flexing a tasteful programming of the 808 while taking the long road to a reverb-drenched crescendo of distortions and expansive string swells. After a prolific output of material for other quality labels around the world, Toby Tobias has undoubtedly re-focused his point-of-view upon his induction to the ESP Institute. These two songs will have you locking up your children at night.